Another Northern State Prepares for Sharia

"UN Integrated Regional Information Networks," October 30, 2001

Islamic Sharia law will come into effect on Friday in northern Kaduna State despite
opposition by Christians there, news organisations reported on Monday. State
Governor Ahmed Makarfi, who made the announcement in a state-wide broadcast on
Friday, said that the Islamic legal code would only be applicable in areas
where there was a Muslim majority, BBC reported.

Kaduna, which is almost equally divided between Christians and Muslims, was last year
the scene of bloody clashes between the two groups over the code's proposed
introduction. Hundreds of people were killed and homes, businesses, churches
and mosques destroyed during the violence. Makarfi's statement is viewed as an
attempt to appease both groups but, according to the state branch of the
Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), they are not satisfyied with the
apparent concession. "We have made it quite clear from the beginning. I
don't know how it is going to work," PANA reported CAN Secretary Saidu
Dogo as saying. Meanwhile the secretary-general of the Supreme Council for
Islamic Affairs, speaking on Radio Nigeria from Kaduna on Saturday, urged
Christians in Nigeria to embrace the Sharia legal system "to check the
prevailing moral decadence in society and promote peaceful coexistence among
Christians and Muslims.

Several other states in northern Nigeria have already launched Sharia whose strict
codes include hand amputations for stealing and death by stoning for adultery.